This Side of Paradise [8]
through the air, parti-colored birds with iridescent plumage. I heard strange music and the flare of barbaric trumpets what?"
Amory had snickered.
"What, Amory?"
"I said go on, Beatrice."
"That was allit merely recurred and recurred gardens that flaunted coloring against which this would be quite dull, moons that whirled and swayed, paler than winter moons, more golden than harvest moons"
"Are you quite well now, Beatrice?"
"Quite wellas well as I will ever be. I am not understood, Amory. I know that can't express it to you, Amory, butI am not understood."
Amory was quite moved. He put his arm around his mother, rubbing his head gently against her shoulder.
"Poor Beatrice poor Beatrice."
"Tell me about you, Amory. Did you have two horrible years?" Amory considered lying, and then decided against it.
"No, Beatrice. I enjoyed them. I adapted myself to the bourgeoisie. I became conventional." He surprised himself by saying that, and he pictured how Froggy would have gaped. "Beatrice," he said suddenly, "I want to go away to school. Everybody in Minneapolis is going to go away to school." Beatrice showed some alarm.
"But you're only fifteen."
"Yes, but everybody goes away to school at fifteen, and I want to, Beatrice."
On Beatrice's suggestion the subject was dropped for the rest of the walk, but a week later she delighted him by saying: "Amory, I have decided to let you have your way. If you still want to, you can go to school."
"Yes?"
"To St. Regis's in Connecticut."
Amory felt a quick excitement.
"It's being arranged," continued Beatrice. "It's better that you should go away. I'd have preferred you to have gone to Eton, and then to Christ Church, Oxford, but it seems impracticable nowand for the present we'll let the university question take care of itself."
"What are you going to do, Beatrice?"
"Heaven knows. It seems my fate to fret away my years in this country. Not for a second do I regret being Americanindeed, I think that a regret typical of very vulgar people, and I feel sure we are the great coming nationyet"and she sighed"I feel my life should have drowsed away close to an older, mellower civilization, a land of greens and autumnal browns" Amory did not answer, so his mother continued:
"My regret is that you haven't been abroad, but still, as you are a man, it's better that you should grow up here under the snarling eagleis that the right term?"
Amory agreed that it was. She would not have appreciated the Japanese invasion.
"When do I go to school?"
"Next month. You'll have to start East a little early to take your examinations. After that you'll have a free week, so I want you to go up the Hudson and pay a visit."
"To who?"
"To Monsignor Darcy, Amory. He wants to see you. He went to Harrow and then to Yalebecame a Catholic. I want him to talk to youI feel he can be such a help" She stroked his auburn hair gently. "Dear Amory, dear Amory"
"Dear Beatrice"
So early in September Amory, provided with "six suits summer underwear, six suits winter underwear, one sweater or T shirt, one jersey, one overcoat, winter, etc.," set out for New England, the land of schools.
There were Andover and Exeter with their memories of New England deadlarge, college-like democracies; St. Mark's, Groton, St. Regis'recruited from Boston and the Knickerbocker families of New York; St. Paul's, with its great rinks; Pomfret and St. George's, prosperous and well-dressed; Taft and Hotchkiss, which prepared the wealth of the Middle West for social success at Yale; Pawling, Westminster, Choate, Kent, and a hundred others; all milling out their well-set-up, conventional, impressive type, year after year; their mental stimulus the college entrance exams; their vague purpose set forth in a hundred circulars as "To impart a Thorough Mental, Moral, and Physical Training as a Christian Gentleman, to fit the boy for meeting the problems of his day and generation, and to give a solid foundation in the Arts and Sciences."
At St. Regis' Amory stayed three days and took
Amory had snickered.
"What, Amory?"
"I said go on, Beatrice."
"That was allit merely recurred and recurred gardens that flaunted coloring against which this would be quite dull, moons that whirled and swayed, paler than winter moons, more golden than harvest moons"
"Are you quite well now, Beatrice?"
"Quite wellas well as I will ever be. I am not understood, Amory. I know that can't express it to you, Amory, butI am not understood."
Amory was quite moved. He put his arm around his mother, rubbing his head gently against her shoulder.
"Poor Beatrice poor Beatrice."
"Tell me about you, Amory. Did you have two horrible years?" Amory considered lying, and then decided against it.
"No, Beatrice. I enjoyed them. I adapted myself to the bourgeoisie. I became conventional." He surprised himself by saying that, and he pictured how Froggy would have gaped. "Beatrice," he said suddenly, "I want to go away to school. Everybody in Minneapolis is going to go away to school." Beatrice showed some alarm.
"But you're only fifteen."
"Yes, but everybody goes away to school at fifteen, and I want to, Beatrice."
On Beatrice's suggestion the subject was dropped for the rest of the walk, but a week later she delighted him by saying: "Amory, I have decided to let you have your way. If you still want to, you can go to school."
"Yes?"
"To St. Regis's in Connecticut."
Amory felt a quick excitement.
"It's being arranged," continued Beatrice. "It's better that you should go away. I'd have preferred you to have gone to Eton, and then to Christ Church, Oxford, but it seems impracticable nowand for the present we'll let the university question take care of itself."
"What are you going to do, Beatrice?"
"Heaven knows. It seems my fate to fret away my years in this country. Not for a second do I regret being Americanindeed, I think that a regret typical of very vulgar people, and I feel sure we are the great coming nationyet"and she sighed"I feel my life should have drowsed away close to an older, mellower civilization, a land of greens and autumnal browns" Amory did not answer, so his mother continued:
"My regret is that you haven't been abroad, but still, as you are a man, it's better that you should grow up here under the snarling eagleis that the right term?"
Amory agreed that it was. She would not have appreciated the Japanese invasion.
"When do I go to school?"
"Next month. You'll have to start East a little early to take your examinations. After that you'll have a free week, so I want you to go up the Hudson and pay a visit."
"To who?"
"To Monsignor Darcy, Amory. He wants to see you. He went to Harrow and then to Yalebecame a Catholic. I want him to talk to youI feel he can be such a help" She stroked his auburn hair gently. "Dear Amory, dear Amory"
"Dear Beatrice"
So early in September Amory, provided with "six suits summer underwear, six suits winter underwear, one sweater or T shirt, one jersey, one overcoat, winter, etc.," set out for New England, the land of schools.
There were Andover and Exeter with their memories of New England deadlarge, college-like democracies; St. Mark's, Groton, St. Regis'recruited from Boston and the Knickerbocker families of New York; St. Paul's, with its great rinks; Pomfret and St. George's, prosperous and well-dressed; Taft and Hotchkiss, which prepared the wealth of the Middle West for social success at Yale; Pawling, Westminster, Choate, Kent, and a hundred others; all milling out their well-set-up, conventional, impressive type, year after year; their mental stimulus the college entrance exams; their vague purpose set forth in a hundred circulars as "To impart a Thorough Mental, Moral, and Physical Training as a Christian Gentleman, to fit the boy for meeting the problems of his day and generation, and to give a solid foundation in the Arts and Sciences."
At St. Regis' Amory stayed three days and took